About 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious US private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in the Ukrainian military operation against anti-government protesters in southeastern regions of the country, German media reports.

The Bild am Sonntag newspaper, citing a source in intelligence
circles, wrote Sunday that Academi employees are involved in the
Kiev military crackdown on pro-autonomy activists in near the
town of Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region.

On April 29, German Intelligence Service (BND) informed
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government about the mercenaries’
participation in the operation, the paper said, RIA Novosti
reported. It is not clear who commands the private military
contractors and pays for their services, however.

In March, media reports appeared suggesting that the coup-imposed
government in Kiev could have employed up to 300 mercenaries.That
was before the new government launched a military operation
against anti-Maidan activists, or “terrorists” as Kiev put it, in
southeast Ukraine.

At the time, the Russian Foreign Ministry said then that reports
claiming Kiev was planning to involve “involve staff from
foreign military companies to ‘ensure the rule of law,’” could
suggest that it wanted “to suppress civil protests and
dissatisfaction.”

In particular, Greystone Limited, which is currently registered
in Barbados and is a part of Academi Corporation, is a candidate
for such a gendarme role. It is a similar and probably an
affiliated structure of the Blackwater private army, whose staff
have been accused of cruel and systematic violations of human
rights in various trouble spots on many occasions.

“Among the candidates for the role of gendarme is the
Barbados-registered company Greystone Limited, which is
integrated with the Academi corporation,” the Foreign
Ministry said in a statement. “It is an analogue, and,
probably and affiliated body of the Blackwater private army,
whose employees have repeatedly been accused of committing
grievous and systematic human rights abuses in different troubled
regions.”

Allegations increased further after unverified videos appeared on YouTube of unidentified
armed men in the streets of Donetsk, the capital of the country’s
industrial and coalmining region. In those videos, onlookers can
be heard shouting “Mercenaries!”“Blackwater!,”
and “Who are you going to shoot at?”

Academi denied its involvement in Ukraine, claiming on its
website that “rumors” were posted by “some
irresponsible bloggers and online reporters.”

“Such unfounded statements combined with the lack of factual
reporting to support them and the lack of context about the
company, are nothing more than sensationalistic efforts to create
hysteria and headlines in times of genuine crisis,” the US
firm stated.

The American security company Blackwater gained worldwide
notoriety for the substantial role it played in the Iraq war as a
contractor for the US government. In recent years it has changed
its name twice – in 2009 it was renamed Xe Services and in 2011
it got its current name, Academi.

The firm became infamous for the alleged September 16, 2007
killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. The attack, which saw
20 others wounded, was allegedly without justification and in
violation of deadly-force rules that pertained to American
security contractors in Iraq at the time. Between 2005 and
September 2007, Blackwater security guards were involved in at
least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq and fired first in 163 of
those cases, a Congressional report said at the time.